The Lakers lost again, in the absence of James, Westbrook and Thick Brow Brother were crazy to hit iron, and finally they lost to the Blazers 90-105, trailing by 30 points at the end of the third quarter, and the Lakers directly gave up in the fourth quarter and entered garbage time. Losing isn't terrible, but the Lakers have big problems with hiring people. Even if the Lakers entered garbage time early in this game, their veteran Howard did not get even a minute of playing time in the fourth quarter, and it is incomprehensible that Howard only got 14 minutes of playing in this game with Davis only playing 6 minutes due to stomach pain.
The last game against the Thunder, the same James absent, Vogel would rather let the glass physique of the thick eyebrow brother play 38 minutes, play to the end obviously feel Davis's physical weakness, but still let him be on the field; and the very good Howard has been pressed on the bench, only got 7.9 minutes to play, the last game Howard only shot once, got 2 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block, less than 8 minutes to get such excellent data, but Vogel just did not let him play, why? It's hard not to think of what happened before Howard and Davis clashed.
At that time, it was in a timeout, the two because of a defensive communication problem, Davis directly pointed at Howard's nose and scolded, Howard could not bear to stand up and want to theorize with Davis, Davis directly moved, and Howard pushed and shoved, and later the two were pulled away by teammates, Davis also pointed to Howard has been scolding. Although both clarified after the game that the contradictions caused by the basketball problem on the court had been reconciled, things did not seem to be so simple. In the second half of that game, Howard didn't play. In the next two games, Howard did not play a minute directly, and the reason given by the team was that Howard had a neck injury that needed daily observation. But even after recovering, against the Thunder, Howard played very well, but he only had 7.9 minutes to play. Davis withdrew from the game, Howard only got 14 minutes, and even if it was garbage time in the fourth quarter, he didn't let him play.
It's really hard not to think about such a situation, we can all see that Howard is in good shape, can't Lakers coach Vogel not see it? So why didn't he replace howard? There's only one reason left, and that's that Davis and Howard are still at odds, and Davis is pressuring the coaching staff to reduce Howard's playing time, or at least he's reluctant to be there at the same time as Howard. This makes sense as to why Vogel kept Howard on the bench. Of course, this is just speculation, after all, we are not Vogel, nor do we live in the Lakers locker room, and the actual situation is not clear to anyone but themselves. But that's really the most reasonable guess, you think?
The Lakers can now be said to be in internal and external difficulties, not only are the troops full of injuries, but also the coaching staff has problems, and their record is also very poor. For the Lakers who are determined to win the championship, it is almost inevitable to lose when they meet strong teams, and it is forced to open five or five when they meet weak teams, even if they win, it is extremely difficult. In this case, Davis also wants to engage in infighting, which is really ignorant. If you really don't like him, then ask the team to trade him or himself, and let the team choose for itself. Howard is still in the team, but he is engaged in this kind of small means to affect the unity of the team, so that it is not to say that it is difficult to win the championship, and the playoffs are difficult!